My daughter broke her leg 6 months ago. It was a pretty bad break of the femur bone. She was hospitalized for a week, during which she had surgery. Then, she spent about 4 months in a wheel chair and crutches. She has physical therapy and is walking now with a limp. The orthopedic surgeon says that she should be about back to normal but that my daughter is not doing her part to push herself.
As parents, we urge, we push, we cajole, we yell, we explain, we force, etc. to get her to move her leg, her body, anything. We have asked the physical therapist and the surgeon if they had any ideas to get her motivated but they have not come up with anything.
Currently, she has execises she has to do at home. Plus, she has to walk the track or kick a soccer ball for PE at school. We make her go up and down the stairs at home extra times by tricking her into it. She is so scared that it will hurt that she contorts her hip and back to protect the leg.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to trick her into using her leg normally? The direct approach does not work.
I want to thank everyone who responded. There were a lot of great ideas. We have started bike riding, with training wheels so that she does not have to worry about balance and the leg. It has been great. She starts off slow but works up to a respectable speed. We are going to try to find a pool this summer for her to work out in. Lastly, we have set goals so that she can play soccer in the fall.
We are seeing her orthopedic surgeon today, so I hope he is happy with the progress.
I have to say how pleased I am that the bike riding is working. She is so much more confident in her leg that she is about ready to run. Thanks for all the great advice. I can hardly wait for summer and the swimming pool!
My son limped for a year after breaking his leg. I don't think it's unusual.
Biking would be my suggestion. It requires her to use her legs in a balanced way, and that might help retrain her brain.
I went through the same experience after I broke a bone in my foot. When it was healed and I had completed therapy, there was no reason I could not walk normally. However, I continued to limp. The therapists explained to me that "my brain had protected that foot" so it would not cause me pain. Therefore, I needed to "retrain my brain" to allow me to use that foot. I had to forced myself to use the repaired foot and "limp to protect" the good foot. I had to "trick" my brain to retrain itself. Does that make any sense?? It worked. NOW, the question would be, how do you explain that to a child????
Swimming is a great suggestion from many people. You could also try dancing - either formally in a class or informally at home. Just put on some upbeat, loud music and move!
Hi D.,
You didn't mention how old your daughter is but have you tried to be active with her? I know that I have found it is easier to get my kids to do anything if I get in there with them. It could be something as simple as a family walk together or telling her you're going to see how many times you can climb the stairs. Maybe you do that and challenge all the kids in your family so that she doesn't realize you are trying to get her to move.
My daughter dislocated her arm when she was 10 and wouldn't straighten it for about eight months after her recovery. She completely babied it and would compensate using her left arm instead. I think she naturally just started using it more and more as time went on and is back to pitching for her softball team.
It may be less stressful for all of you if you all engage in activity together. Maybe she'll forget what she is doing or needs to do if she is having fun moving?
Good luck! I know it's frustrating!
M.
I would encourage something totally different and fun like swimming. It won't seem like the same movement that scares her and it's great weightless movement (very healthy). I would also suggest some psychological therapy so this doesn't develop into a lifelong problem. Maybe she'll open up to someone other than you - sometimes it's hard to talk to a parent. You are all too emotionally intertwined with each other. Children often have preconceived notions about how a parent will respond, so they don't even try to communicate. Good luck.
Go for family walks and hikes and force her to go.
We force our kids on hikes, just to get them out of the house.
And swimming too, as mentioned below. We forced our youngest son onto the swim team, and now he's actually winning or coming in second on all his events!
I broke my own femur at 15, and had some trouble as well. i'll tell ya, that thing HURTS, and the idea of falling is quite scary. i think i have a skill at falling now, based on having to learn how to be ginger with my leg.
my favorite exercise at the physical therapist turned out to be a stationary bike. i had a lot of trouble getting range of movement back in my knee, and the bike allowed me to choose the pressure, and to back it off again at my own pace. i didn't have a stationary bike at home, but it's an idea.
having an exercise that allows her to feel safe...with summer coming up, swimming is a potential idea. tricking her up and down the stairs is good to! go on hikes. offer a walking stick or a cane (talk to your Dr. about this) but i used a cane for a while-a spiffy looking one, not an aluminum one from the hospital- and it provided the "crutch" i needed to feel secure without it affecting my gait to heavily, and eventually abandoned the cane myself. although it does sound you may be past the stage...
humn. you are right to be concerned, but it is a tough problem. kids can be stubborn-and her concern for the pain is quite real. i had twangs of pain from my hip after my femur surgery for at least two years. you have to honor that as a legitimate concern for her first-in some way.
for me, the bike really increased my range of motion, so did the few times i got to ride a horse! not the most readily available therapy, but it really did work!
good luck, and i'll think on this some more. keep on being compassionate about it, and i'm sure it'll work out.
Dear D.,
I really feel for your daughter. She's been through a lot.
I broke my fibula in September 2007. I should have been referred to a ortho specialist, but my doctor felt he could take care of it on his own. Because the swelling was so bad, I only had a splint for the first 6 weeks. Finally, I was put in a cast and was shocked when I went for a check up 2 weeks later and the doctor cut the cast off and told me I was fine. He gave me a list of exercises and wanted me doing 30 "toe-ups" a day. I couldn't even do ONE. I kept telling him something was wrong and he kept ignoring me and telling me it was all in my head. Finally, just to shut me up, he sent me to have more x-rays. It took another 4 weeks for him to even call me, in a sudden panic, and tell me I BETTER not be walking or doing the exercises because my leg was still broken. To make a long story short, it was a nightmare. I did all the physical therapy, etc, and they wanted me to have an MRI (which was never done) to address the soft tissue damage. Anyway, I have world class anxiety about re-injuring my leg. And that anxiety is very real. You might want to see if your insurance covers taking her to see a behavioral therapist to help her address her fears. If you can get a diagnosis that her anxiety is related to the trauma of her injury, your insurance should approve it, no problem. It may really help her to work through it. Like you said, you don't want it to haunt her the rest of her life. I am guessing that having fun and going back to her normal activities might not feel worth the risk of re-living the pain, the hospital, the surgery...
There is no magic trick that will alleviate her fears. Getting someone for her to talk to that specializes in working with children will really help her, I'm sure of it.
Swimming is also amazing physical therapy. Get her in the water as often as you can and just keep encouraging her.
I will definitely keep her in my thoughts.
I'm not sure how old your daughter is, but if she's old enough, I'd suggest thinking about investing in a Wii. Then get the "Wii Fit" games, and let her have a grand time! It can be pretty darn active, challenging and quite a bit of fun. I understand that the Wii games are used a lot in nursing homes, where they're quite popular and get folks moving who before have been too timid to move. The other idea is have her do some leg weight training. If she becomes convinced that her legs can hold weights, then she'll be more confident in the activities that are less stressful. Finally, look up online about how healed bones are actually stronger than normal bones - maybe even have her research it and write a little report if she's old enough. Hope you can find something that can help :).
My daughter hurt her arm and was afraid to start using it again. We went to all kinds of doctors and specialists and they all said there was nothing wrong with it. What finally worked was picking a date and saying the doctors said it would be fine to use it by that date. I kept warning her ahead of time, like "You know, the doctor said your arm would be fine by next week, won't it be great to be able to use it again?" So, when that date finally arrived she tried using her arm, discovered it didn't hurt, and started using it again.
Good luck!
Hi D., My elderly mother fell and fractured her femur bone near her hip area and had surgery...a bar,and pins which were permanent,and was hospitalized for 6 weeks, afterwards needing physical therapy. I know your daughter is much younger and the fracture was maybe not as severe, but it takes a long time for 'protection mode' to disappear. What she went through will be fresh in her mind or a long while, so just have alot of patience with her. After several months my mom was able to live on her own again but was always afraid of reinjuring her bad leg. Sincerely, CJ
i dont know how old your daughter is, so i do not know what exactly will be the appropriate thing to get her to trust her body again, but i can share with you may experience. at the age of 11, i also broke my femur. tell your daughter how lucky she is. i spent 42 long days in the hospital and 3 months out of school. it was a very low point in my life, and changed the way i relate to my body TO THIS DAY. before, i was not so aware of the consequences of breaking myself, but now i understand that rehabilitation is extremely hard work and that even still, the body is never as good as when it was not broken. i am much more cautious with my body, 20 years later even. i played softball for several years after my accident and could not be convinced that it was OK to slide leg-first into the base. instead, i perfected the "butt-slide" where i just sat down on the base on my butt. i am sharing this with you so you have patience with her. let her come up with her own ways sometimes. but she also has to do the work. can you set up long-term goals together, let her know that she needs to be able to run in 6 months, so you can come up with a plan for where she should be every month until then. i can tell you that one of the most powerful images for me at that point in my life was seeing my friends dad -- who had also broken his femur a few years back -- jump on his bad leg over and over and say "see. its better and you will do this too".
please get in touch if she would like any words of encouragement. and good luck on getting her inspired. i know it seems like she may mess herself up by babying the leg, but i think that it will work itself out. it is so much work to baby something for long. definitely check in with her about her hip and lower back. you dont want to add back pain to her situation. the only thing that gave me confidence about the strength of my leg was time. lots of it.
As someone who has had an injury myself I found that water walking or water jogging helped me overcome the fear of pain and helped me to trust my leg. Ask the PT about it.
Hi D., try taking her to hypnosis. It is an amazing way to help someone who has gone through physical trauma and is now afraid. My sister was petrified of giving birth a second time after a very painful and traumatic first birthing experience. During her second pregnancy she went to hypnosis (she is a practicing registered nurse) and her second labor lasted only two hours and no drugs or intervention. The hypnosis removed her fear and anxiety.
I can only imagine how fearful your daughter must be, especially since our society pushes girls to be girl warriors these days. Hopefully she doesn't have any guilt feelings involved which would lead her to think that she is somehow failing you. I can also feel for you as a mom because you want her at her full potential.
FYI...Two years ago I had foot surgery and the orthopedic surgeon said that I should start walking on it as soon as possible even though I needed crutches for several weeks. Despite doing everything I was told to do and more, a year later new xrays showed that the two bones held together with a pin actually had not completely fused. I too favored my foot when going on long walks because it hurt. It hurt for a reason...it wasn't ready. Only now, two years later, do I feel that I could actually run on it despite what the surgeon originally said. (I was a competitive rock climber for six years and always very active so I am not new to sports).
swimming! My brother had a serious hip injury and it does hurt for him to walk, at 15. All the specialists encouraged swimming to strengthen and heal.
good luck!
How old is your daughter? My first thought is to see if you can find anyone who didn't do what they needed to do to heal and the bad side effects of that.
My aunt was hit by a car when she was in 5th grade. She was in a body cast for over a year and is short because of it. She had her hip replaced at 40. She has a physically hard life, but doesn't give up the things she loves because of it. She limps, can't work and her legs are different lengths. Yet she gardens, walks her dogs, camps and so many other things. Most of this is because she did do the exercises years ago when she got out of the cast and because she did them and pushed her self after her hip replacement.
Maybe if your daughter saw what happened to people who didn't try it would scare her into doing what she needs to do.
Best of luck!
C.
what about a dance class? is she into "dancing with the stars?" you could 'fool' her into exercising that leg by enrolling her in ballroom dance class, ballet or maybe even a hip-hop class...
I don't have any experience with this, but making moving fun doesn't have to be complicated. You can buy an inexpensive metal detector and take it on hikes and/or to the playground. If she is walking, even slowly looking for treasure, that will build up strength and confidence. If you want to start extra slow, plant some coins or costume jewelery in your backyard for the detector to find. Hopefully that will get her excited enough to try other places to look.
Does your daughter like to swim? Maybe you can ask her physical therapist(s) about swimming? With warmer weather on the way, it might be a way for her to get some exercise and do something fun at the same time. The water might also help in resistance training for her leg without worrying about gravity to much. Since she's now contorting her hip and back, it might also help loosen up/relax those areas too before she runs into problems. I hope this helps!! Good luck!!
D.,
Consider that maybe, as a family, you could all walk around the block every night. Make it a nature walk, adventure hunt, dog walk, or neighborhood visiting. Maybe start walking for your health or your husband's health - use that as an explanation - then it is about helping someone else and not about your daughter.
Good luck. J.
Hi D.,
I am D. Krauss, mother of 2. Our daughter is 22 and our son is 19. Our son has done gymnastics since he was about 4 years old. He is now competing in college. While I don't know how old your daughter is, I think this story may help you.
When our son was younger, he took a bad fall from the Horizontal Bar (aka High Bar) and hurt his back. He had injuries before this and never seemed to have trouble healing and coming back to gymnastics. This one seemed to really affect him and he wouldn't work out on the high bar. He would do as little as possible, etc. We checked with the pediatrician and physical therapist and he was physically fine to participate. He said there wasn't any pain. He was just scared. It was all mental (falling from 8-10 feet above the floor, it would be mental for me too!). So I took him to a hypnotherapist for treatment. It worked. He spent a few sessions with her and things began to open up for him. He was able to go back to high bar and work out on it as required.
The hypnotherapist's name is Gwenn Henkel. Her email is ____@____.com's very good. She is a Master Hypnotherapist and I think she's located in Belmont. If she's too far away for you, perhaps you can email her and ask her questions or for a referral/recommendation. I hope this works for you.
If you have any questions about the treatment or anything, you can reach me at ____@____.com. I hope this helps.
Take care.
Look online, call about support groups, ask at her doctors, contact the local children's hospital (Oakland) - all to find out where you can contact kids with similar injuries. Have her hook up with some of them. Maybe peers can work with her (and they can push each other) where parents could not.
Good Luck,
K.
Maybe bike riding would be good too. It would force her to use both legs almost equally.
Dear D.,
I am also a pediatric physical therapist. Often kids can be frightened of pain after a trauma such as what your daughter has experienced. I would consider trying a PT who specializes in gait mechanics to correct your daughter's limp. This is done by evaluating why she is limping, fear, tightness, weakness, etc. and treating the problem appropriately through fun, interactive games.
At home, exercises can often be the responsibility of the parents and can become a battle with the child. The key is to find activities that meet the same goals as the exercises but spark your daughter's interest and give her enjoyment. Some ideas that may help: bike riding with the family (include going up some hills), scooter riding, rollerskating, swimming. Swimming may be the easiest to start with as she would have limited weight bearing and be less fearful to relax and have fun.
Please contact me if you would like more specific information or would just like to talk. I may be able to be more helpful if I knew more about your daughter's likes and dislikes as well as her age.
Good luck to you!
K. ###-###-####)
